ETYMOLOGYFrench cafard, caphard, of doubtful origin: some have proposed to identify it with Catalan cafre infidel, Spanish, Portugese cafre cruel, which are apparently adapted from Arabic kāfir

EXAMPLEFrom: The Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais...of the Lives, Heroic Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua and his Sonne PantagruelTranslated into English 1653, Vol. I. Chapter XLIV. How the Monk rid himself of his Keepers, and how PicrocholesForlorne Hope was defeated. P. 132